Transatlantic communications cable

A transatlantic telecommunications cable is a submarine communications cable connecting one side of the Atlantic Ocean to the other. In the 19th and early 20th centuries each cable was a single wire. After mid-century coaxial cable came into use, with amplifiers. Late in the century, all used optical fiber, and most now use optical amplifiers.

History

When the first transatlantic telegraph cable was laid in 1858 by businessman Cyrus West Field, it operated for only three weeks; subsequent attempts in 1865 and 1866 were more successful.[1] Although a telephone cable was discussed starting in the 1920s, to be practical it needed a number of technological advances which did not arrive until the 1940s. Starting in 1927, transatlantic telephone service was radio-based.[2]

TAT-1 (Transatlantic No. 1) was the first transatlantic telephone cable system. It was laid between Gallanach Bay, near Oban, Scotland and Clarenville, Newfoundland between 1955 and 1956 by the cable ship Monarch.[3] It was inaugurated on September 25, 1956, initially carrying 36 telephone channels. In the first 24 hours of public service there were 588 London–U.S. calls and 119 from London to Canada. The capacity of the cable was soon increased to 48 channels. Later, an additional three channels were added by use of C Carrier equipment. Time-assignment speech interpolation (TASI) was implemented on the TAT-1 cable in June 1960 and effectively increased the cable's capacity from 37 (out of 51 available channels) to 72 speech circuits. TAT-1 was finally retired in 1978. Later coaxial cables, installed through the 1970s, used transistors and had higher bandwidth.

Current technology

All cables presently in service use fiber optic technology. Many cables terminate in Newfoundland and Ireland, which lie on the great circle route (the shortest route) from London, UK to New York City, USA.

There have been a succession of newer transatlantic cable systems. All recent systems have used fiber optic transmission, and a self-healing ring topology. Late in the 20th century, communications satellites lost most of their North Atlantic telephone traffic to these low cost, high capacity, low latency cables. This advantage only increases over time as tighter cables provide higher speed – the 2012 generation of cables drop the transatlantic latency to under 60 milliseconds, according to Hibernia Atlantic, deploying such a cable that year.[4][5]

Some new cables are being announced on the South Atlantic: SACS(South Atlantic Cable System)[6] and SAex(South Atlantic Express) [7]

TAT cable routes

The TAT series of cables constitute a large percentage of all North Atlantic cables. All TAT cables are joint ventures between a number of telecommunications companies, e.g. British Telecom. CANTAT cables terminate in Canada rather than in the USA.

NameIn serviceTypeInitial channelsFinal channelsWestern endEastern end
TAT-11956–1978Galvanic3651NewfoundlandScotland
TAT-21959–1982Galvanic4872NewfoundlandFrance
TAT-31963–1986Galvanic138276New JerseyEngland
TAT-41965–1987Galvanic138345New JerseyFrance
TAT-51970–1993Galvanic8452,112Rhode IslandSpain
TAT-61976–1994Galvanic4,00010,000Rhode IslandFrance
TAT-71978–1994Galvanic4,00010,500New JerseyEngland
TAT-81988–2002Fiber-optic40,000New JerseyEngland, France
TAT-91992–2004Fiber-optic80,000New Jersey, Nova ScotiaSpain, France, England
TAT-101992–2003Fiber-optic2 × 565 Mbit/sUSAGermany, Netherlands
TAT-111993–2003Fiber-optic2 × 565 Mbit/sNew JerseyFrance
TAT-12/131996–2008Fiber-optic12 × 2.5 Gbit/sUSA × 2England, France
TAT-142001–Fiber-optic3.2 Tbit/sNew Jersey × 2England, France, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark
CANTAT-11961–1986Galvanic80NewfoundlandEngland
CANTAT-21974–1992Galvanic1,840Nova ScotiaEngland
CANTAT-31994–2010Fiber-optic2 × 2.5 Gbit/sNova ScotiaIceland, Faroe Islands, England, Denmark, Germany
PTAT-11989–2004Fiber-optic3 × 140 Mbit/s?New Jersey & BermudaIreland & England

Private cable routes

There are a number of private non-TAT cables.

Cable name Ready for service Cable length (km) Nominal capacity Latency (ms) Landing points Owner
Gemini (decommissioned) May 1998 under 100 ms north: Charlestown, US-RI; Oxwich Bay, GB-WLS; south: Manasquan, US-NJ; Porthcurno, GB-ENG Vodafone (originally Cable & Wireless)
AC-1 May 1998 14,301 km 120 Gbit/s 65 ms[5] Brookhaven, US-NY; Whitesands Bay, GB-ENG; Beverwijk, NL-NH; Sylt, DE-SH Level 3 Communications (originally Global Crossing)
Columbus-III December 1999 9,833 km Hollywood, US-FL; Ponta Delgada (Azores), PT; Carcavelos, PT; Conil de la Frontera, ES-AN; Mazara del Vallo (Sicily), IT various telecom operators
Yellow/AC-2 September 2000 7,001 km 640 Gbit/s under 100 ms Bellport, US-NY; Bude, GB-ENG Level 3 Communications
Hibernia Atlantic April 2001 12,200 km 320 Gbit/s, upgraded to 10.16 Tbit/s[8] 59 ms[5] Lynn, US-MA; Herring Cove, CA-NS; Dublin, IE-L; Southport, GB-ENG; Coleraine, GB-NIR Hibernia Networks (CVC Acquisition Company)
FLAG Atlantic June 2001 14,500 km under 100 ms Island Park, US-NY; Plerin, FR-E; Skewjack, GB-ENG; Northport, US-NY Global Cloud Xchange (Reliance Communications)
Tata TGN-Atlantic June 2001 13,000 km 5.1 Tbit/s under 100 ms Wall Township, US-NJ; Highbridge, GB-ENG Sold by Tyco to Tata Communications in 2005
Apollo February 2003 13,000 km 3.2 Tbit/s under 100 ms Manasquan, New Jersey, US-NJ; Lannion, FR-E; Bude, GB-ENG; Shirley, US-NY Vodafone (originally Cable & Wireless)[9]
Greenland Connect March 2009 4,780 km Milton, CA-NL; Aasiaat, GL-QA; Sisimiut, GL-QE; Maniitsoq, GL-QE; Nuuk, GL-SM; Qaqortoq, GL-KU; Landeyjar, IS TELE Greenland
Hibernia Express September 2015 4,600 km Halifax, CA-NS; Cork, IE-M; Brean, GB-ENG Hibernia Networks
AEConnect January 2016 5,522 km 4 × 10 Tbit/s (four strand 100 × 100 Gbit/s) 54 ms Shirley, US-NY; Killala, IE-C Aqua Comms
MAREA Q1 2018 (planned) 6,600 km Virginia Beach, US-VA; Bilbao, ES-PV Facebook, Microsoft, Telefónica
Midgardsormen Q2 2019 (planned) 7,848 km Virginia Beach, US-VA; Blaabjerg, DK; Mo i Rana, NO Midgardsormen

South Atlantic cable routes

Cable name Ready for service Length Landing points Owner
Atlantis-2 February 2000 8,500 km Carcavelos, PT; El Médano, ES-CN; Praia, CV; Dakar, SN; Fortaleza, BR-CE; Las Toninas, AR-B various telecom operators
EulaLink Q1 2018 5,900 km Sines, PT; Fortaleza, BR-CE; Santos, BR-SP Telebras, IslaLink
SAex Q2 2018 13,050 km Virginia Beach, US-VA; Jamestown, SH-HL; Yzerfontein, ZA-WC; Mtunzini, ZA-NL SAEx International Ltd. (SimplCom South Africa)
SACS Q3 2018 6,165 km Fortaleza, BR-CE; Luanda, AO Angola Cables
SAIL Q4 2018 5,900 km Fortaleza, BR-CE; Kribi, CM Camtel, China Unicom

See also

References

  1. Guarnieri, M. (March 2014). "The Conquest of the Atlantic". IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine. 8 (1): 53–55/67. doi:10.1109/MIE.2014.2299492.(subscription required)
  2. Short-Wave System for Transatlantic Telephony, by Polkinghorn and Schlaack BSTJ, 1935
  3. "Being First Telephone Cable to Connect Hemispheres" Popular Mechanics, March 1954, p. 114.
  4. "Building Networks for High-Speed Stock Trading - WSJ.com". Online.wsj.com. October 9, 2011. Retrieved September 18, 2013.
  5. 1 2 3 "The $300m cable that will save traders milliseconds". The Daily Telegraph. London. September 11, 2011. Retrieved September 18, 2013.
  6. "Angola Cables to build the world's first submarine cable across the South Atlantic: Press Releases - NEC".
  7. "16Tbit/s SAEx cable deal signed".
  8. "Hibernia Offers Cross-Atlantic 40G". Light Reading. August 13, 2009.
  9. "Submarine Cable Actions Taken PN". FCC. October 4, 2012.
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